


Into the Light

by OveliaGirlHaditRight



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Angel Season Three AU, Bangel - Freeform, Buffy Season Six AU, F/M, Gift Fic, I'm New to the Fandom. Yep, My First Time Writing BtVS, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23530504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OveliaGirlHaditRight/pseuds/OveliaGirlHaditRight
Summary: Angel comes back to Sunnydale (during S6 of Buffy and S3 of his own show), as Tara thinks she's found a way to turn all vampires human.
Relationships: Angel/Buffy Summers
Kudos: 12





	Into the Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Palizinha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palizinha/gifts).



> For Palizinhas' birthday.

“Angel… you can’t just drop that news—that you’ve found a way for all vampires to become human?—and leave it there,” Buffy said somewhat in a disapproving manner—surprising even herself, as she crossed her arms—since the reality of the situation hadn’t quite hit her yet. She wasn’t letting it.  
  
Angel walked through the swings on this playground, in order to get closer to Buffy. And the smirk he was wearing now reminded her much of when they’d first been dating, and they’d snipe at enemies together. Despite itself, her heart began beating fast in its ribcage. “I can, if it’s your friend Tara working on it… and she maybe wants most of it kept a secret until she does or doesn’t figure it out. Respect her wishes, Buffy.”

Angel really had gotten better at acting, Buffy couldn’t help thinking now… Not that she thought he didn’t mean what he said—or that he _wasn’t_ as excited to have found a way to be with her as he was letting on—but he’d figured out just the right words, tones, and facial expressions to up the ante on every single thing he did. And Buffy found herself getting lost in him.

But since their co-dependence had caused problems for them before—and she’d grown since then—Buffy tried to fight back against it, even if all she wanted to do was jump into his arms and cry right now.  
  
“But don’t you think we should ask Willow instead?” Buffy argued… But she also somehow knew that she shouldn’t be. Both Willow and Xander had told Buffy of the dreams they’d had—when the first Slayer had tried to kill them all–where Willow had been cast in darkness, while Tara had always been in the light. And while Buffy didn’t want to believe it meant anything, she also knew that it did. Slayer dreams always meant something… and if Tara really was the light in the darkness here, perhaps it was she who was perfect for this.

“Buffy, don’t you know how perfect this is?!” Angel interrupted Buffy’s thoughts, almost as though he had read them. He was even closer to her now, and holding her hand and getting her all flustered… Which really shouldn’t have happened, given all that she’d done with Riley and the tame things she had done with Angel in comparison, but maybe Angel really was a livewire where she was concerned. Buffy wasn’t quite sure what to do with that information. “We can lead normal human lives together now. We can-”

“We can grow old and gray in a retirement home together, and talk about our glory days?” Buffy couldn’t help asking, as she was pulled back into a conversation from so many years ago—perhaps the best year of her life—and suddenly she was drowning in Angel, and all the could-have-beens they would have had, if the mayor had kept his big, fat mouth shut. And when Angel tried to kiss her here, she didn’t resist.

Since it was them, it didn’t take long for it to get heated: with the two of them somehow on the ground together, as Buffy ran one hand through Angel’s hair and another slipped under his shirt… and as he placed his lips to her neck and was then going down towards her stomach… which reminded Buffy of something.

And that perfect day of when she was with him in Los Angeles—really with him: as in Angel had found a magical way to become human alongside her, with him—came back to Buffy in flashes of white light behind her eyes, gasps for air, and tears down her cheek.

Buffy was on her feet in an instant, since she didn’t want to get hurt again, as she wrapped her arms around herself and started babbling both loving and amazed words, and accusatory ones.“Angel… wait. I remember now. You were- you were human, and we were happy! But you- you gave it up—gave _me_ up—so I, and the world, would be safe… And though it kills me, I understand why you did it! …So why are you acting differently _now_?”  
  
And seeing her cry seemed to awaken some protective instinct in Angel, like it often did. He stood up, too. And the vampire’s eyes widened, as he seemed to awaken from some sort of trance. “Oh, Buffy! I- I’m _so_ sorry that I somehow made you remember that. I never wanted you to…

“I- I never should have come here, or selflessly bought into Tara’s promise, if she isn’t even sure she can make it. But everything with Connor has made me- But we don’t belong to ourselves, Buffy. You’re right. I should-”  
  
“Go, you said,” Buffy repeated another long conversation of theirs, without even thinking about it. And this one was only natural to do so. Because at this point in her life, Angel leaving was just inevitable for so many reasons… even if it was the last thing she ever wanted.  
  
But if Angel were to leave now… Buffy knew she would never recover from it. And be even more of a shell than she’d been since Willow had revived her. Having the dream that she’d always wanted dangled in her face again, like a carrot, and then ripped away would have just been too cruel. So even though she wanted to protect her heart and not lose sight of her duty as the Slayer again… Buffy thought that maybe she did owe it to both of them—and to Tara—to give this possibility a chance.

“Angel, wait!” And Buffy’s hand was now on her love’s arm, the way she had dreamed of it being there the night he left her life forever, as he walked between those firetrucks. “…It might _not_ be a lost cause, because… Even though we’d have to make sure Tara would be okay, and that no bad could come from this, what if this is the answer? The way to save countless vampire souls, your soul… maybe even Faith’s, oddly enough… and mine? We could really have an answer here. But to figure that out, we have to talk to Tara, and you need to-”

“Stay.” Angel finished Buffy’s thought again… but this one that was so uncharted, it made her happy and giddy at the thought of the _new_.

In that moment, Buffy wouldn’t have said Angel’s smile was big, per se. How could it be, with the few things he’d recently told her about his son? …But it also seemed to completely light up this outdoor park in the dead of night.

And Angel did it. He stayed. As Wesley headed up Angel Investigations for him in L.A. and fought a few more apocalypses there, as Buffy and Angel dealt with some end of the worlds in good old Sunnydale.  
  
Then he was human.

A new memory was made in the light, as Angel kissed Buffy in the sunlight and she cried tears of joy… and Buffy noticed that Dawn stood in the background, approving of them for the first time ever.

**Author's Note:**

> The last line is inspired by how Dawn said Angel always made Buffy cry, and she didn’t seem to like him for this, so as he gets her to cry tears of joy here and stays… Dawn finally approves. Yep.
> 
> And I left it up to the audience whether it was Tara’s spell that turned Angel human or the Shanshu Prophecy.


End file.
